| With the development of the internet, online video has been playing an important role in the application of the internet. The video-sharing website was built for the purpose of enabling people to share their original videos. However, network users often upload infringing videos to video-sharing websites for lack of awareness of copyright protection, so that video-sharing websites are always involved in copyright disputes. Therefore, how to determine video-sharing websites'legal liabilities and how to balance the interests between copyright owners and video-sharing websites have been causing extensive discussions. Therefore, the research concerning video-sharing websites'legal liabilities does have realistic significance. This thesis can be divided into five chapters.In the first chapter, I introduce the basic theory concerning video-sharing website's secondary infringement liability. I also introduce basic concepts such as the Internet Service Provider (hereinafter referred to as"ISP") and the Right to Network Dissemination of Information. The two forms of secondary infringement liability are also described in this chapter.In the second chapter, I describe the criterion of secondary infringement liability. I also introduce the constitutive requirements for contributory liability and vicarious liability through discussion of two famous cases in the United States. The video-sharing website shall be liable for secondary infringement if it meets such constitutive requirements.In the third chapter, I describe the history and meaning of safe harbor rules specified in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (hereinafter referred to as"DMCA"). Since China's legislations concerning the secondary infringement liability of ISP mainly draw lessons from the provision of Section 512 (c) of DMCA, it is necessary for us to make clear of the meaning of Section 512 (c).In the fourth chapter, I discuss the current situations of China's video-sharing websites on the basis of their own characteristics, combining theory and practice. In China, video-sharing websites are required by administrative regulation to review videos uploaded to its own website in order to avoid illegal content. Besides, the business model of China's video-sharing websites is quite different from that of YouTube. Such factors increase the risk of being held liable for infringement.In the fifth chapter, I make suggestions on how to improve the legal system regarding video-sharing website's secondary infringement liability. And my proposals mainly involve following aspects: legislation, judicial practice and policy guidance.
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